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Press conference of President Maurice KAMTO on the ongoing civil war in the North-West and South-West regions and on the assault of the Vice-President of the CRM, Barrister Emmanuel SIMH, by hooded individuals

Long before the Government opted for deterioration in the Anglophone crisis, which today degenerated into civil war, the Cameroon Renaissance Movement had asserted that secession is a dead end and indicated the urgency for the power to start a national dialogue on the Anglophone claims and other country’s political and social situation.

Unfortunately, we got deaf ears from both the secessionists and the Government, hence the dramatic situation currently prevailing in the North-West and South-West Regions.

So many useless deaths, sufferings, refugees! To the families of all those killed, CRM presents its sincere condolences.

The party wishes speedy recovery to the wounded, and expresses its total solidarity with the thousands of Cameroonians who have abandoned their villages to live in the refugee camps in Nigeria.

The civil war between security and defense forces and the armed secessionists in the two anglophone regions of our country has recently taken a new turn with the kidnapping by armed men of Mr. NAMATA Marcel DITENG, Sub-Divisional Officer of Batibo, Momo division in the North-West Region on 11 February 2018.

Also in Batibo, on 24 February 2018, it was the turn of the Regional Delegate of Social Affairs for the North-West, Mr. ANIMBOM Aaron ANKIAMBOM, to be abducted by strangers. In a video posted on social networks by his kidnappers, Cameroonians have watched, powerless, this senior government official imploring his minister to meet the demands of his captors, within 48 hours, and save his life.

In the case of the Divisional Officer as well as that of the Regional Delegate, the Government kept a terrifying silence.

The Minister of Territorial Administration (MINAT), the same one who, by his act of dissolution of the Consortium, had precipitated the shift in the crisis, did not consider it necessary to speak out on this exceptionally serious matter that is detrimental to the morale of these men and women who, far, very far from the cosy comfort of ministerial offices and large cities, work to survive and keep the Republic alive in a scary security context.

The Minister of Social Affairs has, like the MINAT, chosen to abandon his official to face his plight. The Prime Minister, head of the government, also maintained silence.

More seriously, during the Ministerial Council chaired by the Head of State on 15 March 2018, President Paul BIYA did not have a single word for the representatives of the State, all of them taken hostage in the course of their duties. There are very few countries where state officials can be abducted without their fate and the pain of their families being on the agenda of the Ministerial Council. In fact, elsewhere, where power has a human face, these kidnappings of public servants are the type of events that immediately trigger a crisis meeting at the top of the State.

What needs to happen to Cameroonians for President BIYA to finally show some compassion? In the conflict against Boko Haram in the North ongoing since May 2014, he never thought it necessary to bring the compassion and solidarity of the Cameroonian people to our bruised compatriots or that he could go to the bedside of the wounded and hospitalized soldiers. Even the Chadian president’s visit to the wounded Chadian soldiers, who were hospitalized at the Military Hospital in Yaoundé, was not enough to get him decide to leave his palace and travel three to four kilometres to the Military Hospital in order to bring the Republican warmth of the people to the brave wounded soldiers.

Certainly, the exegeses of the New Deal regime will invoke “the time of the president” and “presidential silences” to try to justify the distance of the Head of State vis-à-vis his people; but, in truth, the attitude of the President of the Republic gives ample information on the consideration he has for Cameroonians. Indeed, no other president in the world can display as much distance from his people caught in the dramas.

Following the first hostage-taking, on Saturday 17 March 2018, Prof Ivo LEKE TAMBO, Board Chair of the Cameroon General Certificate of Education (GCE) Board and about thirty students and persons were kidnapped by armed individuals. Professor Ivo LEKE TAMBO was later featured in a propaganda video in social media. All this does not bode well for our country.

The CRM strongly condemns these kidnappings and killings, as well asarsons of publics and private assets, schools and religious buildings, and all other acts of violence and humiliation that accompany them. The perpetrators of these acts must be convinced that the Cameroonian people will never accept the partition of our dear and beautiful country, fruit of a historical legacy and joint work of Anglophones and Francophones who are determined to carry their homeland together to the highest level of development, shared prosperity and global reach.

On the cabinet reshuffle of 2 March

On 2 March 2018, the Head of State proceeded to the reshuffle of the Government. This reshuffle in the midst of the civil war in the two anglophone regions of our country clearly confirms, in the light of certain anglophone personalities promoted to the rank of ministers who are more than controversial, that these appointments attest to the choice of the logic of the worst by the Regime in the management of what was once a political crisis.

In fact, by appointing Mr Paul ATANGA NJI, Minister of Territorial Administration, the very person who, by his provocative remarks and actions, had accelerated the transformation from crisis to violent confrontation, President BIYA demonstrated that he and his government have a political interest in that this security and social situation goes on, which however severely affects the populations of the two anglophone regions and the national economy. It is indeed now a “provocative and warlike minister” who is in charge of managing, in his own way, a civil war of which he bears an undisputable historical responsibility in the outbreak.

The appointment of Mrs NALOVA LYONGHA Pauline EGBE as Minister of Secondary Education in the new government is part of the same logic of rejection of dialogue and the reward of violence supporters by President BIYA. It is Mrs NALOVA LYONGHA, then Vice-Chancellor at the University of Buea at the time of the outbreak of the Anglophone crisis, who ordered the intervention of the police on the campus with all the excesses that the national and international opinion deplored at the time.

Faced with the increasing number of killings and kidnappings in the two anglophone regions, the CRM reiterates its position that secession cannot, in any case, be the solution to the situation in which our country finds itself, nor to the political, economic and social crisis in the North-West and South-West Regions. In truth, it only imposes the worst sufferings on the people. We have been the first to say and we reiterate: only an inclusive political dialogue, dealing with the demands of our anglophone compatriots and beyond, of all the major political issues of the country, can put an end to the current violence.

On the assault of the Vice-President of the CRM, Barrister Emmanuel SIMH by hooded individuals in the night of 18 to 19 March 2018

I cannot finish without bringing to your attention, with consternation and anger, that in the night of 18 to 19 March 2018, around midnight, the CRM Vice-President, Barrister Emmanuel SIMH, barrister, was assaulted, with an intention of assassination, by three hooded individuals, as he was leaving his vehicle in the parking lot of his home.

He was saved only by neighbours who came running to help him. His executioners did not claim anything from him or take anything. This suggests that these individuals were on mission.

While waiting for results of the police investigations, and even if it is not yet known whether it is the politician or the lawyer who was targeted, the CRM condemns in the strongest manner this horrendous act. It calls for speed in the conduct of research so that his attackers, as well as their potential sponsors and accomplices, are brought before the court.